I recently overheard a conversation as one friend gave a gift to the other. The giver commented, “When I saw this, I just knew it was for you and was so bummed I had to wait almost a year for your birthday!” It took every ounce of my self-control to not interrupt with, “Why on earth did you wait so long?!?” But it wasn’t my conversation, my gift, or my friends, so that would have been a tad awkward.

I’m pretty sure celebrations have been around since the creation of people. They’ve long united communities in honoring milestones, rites of passage, religious holidays, and so much more. Celebrations bring a sense of belonging and gratitude - two things we need a lot more of.

I cannot explain the quantity of cupcakes we consume in the first 90 days of the year. January through March has been dubbed “Birthday Season” in the King household as all four of our birthdays fall within the fist three months of the year. I’ve refused to step on a scale since January because I cannot turn down a homemade cupcake. My favorite is vanilla with buttercream.

David's cupcake masterpiece!

Let me be clear (because I feel communicating this in written form could lose some meaning): cupcakes are my love language. No question.

This year, my “I-can-do-anything” artistic husband took on the cupcake baking…for multiple birthdays…and the outcome was nothing short of a delicious masterpiece. As each cupcake feast rolled around, I couldn’t help but notice the girls’ strategy: after close inspection, they consistently chose the cupcake appearing to have the most sprinkles. While I’m personally a cupcake purist - simple buttercream is my jam, I think the girls are on to something. There’s something about a cupcake covered in bright sprinkles that just translates to happy. In that regard, the more sprinkles the better.

This applies to life too: the more sprinkles the better.

3 Reasons to Add Sprinkles

Celebrating requires us to pay attention. It’s often the little things that deserve recognition, but we miss them if we aren’t careful. The more present we are, the more opportunities we’ll find to celebrate.

Celebrating makes an impact. Being celebrated does something to us on the inside. It touches a place few other things can, and the impact lasts way beyond the moment.

The truth is, the benefits of celebrating go way beyond cupcakes and sprinkles.

So why wait?

Blow up the balloons. Make the cupcakes. Mail the card. Give the high five. Award the certificate. Give the gift. Leave the note. Say the words.

None of this is in short supply, so why do we often live as if there's a sprinkle shortage? Celebrating doesn’t have to be an event. It doesn’t have to be expensive, or even time consuming. A little attention and a little follow-through usually do the trick.

Whether you know it or not, you need more sprinkles. And so do the people you do life with: your family, your coworkers, your next door neighbor, the lady at the grocery store.

I really don’t think we’ll get to the end of our lives and say, “I really should have skipped the sprinkles.”

Join the conversation by commenting below: What are you going to purposefully celebrate this week? Maybe something you've had on hold or maybe something that never occured to you. Please share!